Just Peachy
by halinar
Summary: Dawn/Andrew. Set after Chosen. Dawn is cold and walks on the bus to find Andrew. Andrew is alone and wakes up on the bus to find Dawn. RnR...please?


_I decided to take up Auron is my man's idea and do a little Dawn/Andrew ficlet. Review? Please?_

Just Peachy

By Halina Renata

DAWN: It's OK, Andrew. You did good. You stood up to it. That's really amazing.

ANDREW: Thank you. You're a peach.

                                                            --First Date

Dawn wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees in an effort to get warm. The clouds were dispersing, a sure sign that the remainders of the apocalypse were disappearing. Still, she felt cold. For a while, she had thought it was the shock. The numbness of it all. People she knew and cared about had died. In all wars there were casualties and Dawn was amazed that had got away with this much. Still, the loss. But as time went on, Dawn began to think it wasn't that. She was still cold despite the fact she was by the fire. It blazed in front of her lighting up the darkened sky. It was probably the one sign of light for miles considering what was left of Sunnydale had smouldered.

So she got up and walked around. Xander was sitting further away. He hadn't moved from that spot, probably just thinking about Anya. Dawn wanted nothing more than to just run to him and wrap her arms around him, telling him it would go away. But he would smile, say thanks and then go back to it because Dawn didn't know about this kind of stuff. Nothing she would understand.

Buffy had been wandering around, incapable of sitting still. She had moved, fussed and worked and yet all the time, Dawn could see the sadness and mourning on her face for Spike. All in the same of good, a worthy sacrifice, another hole in Buffy's tormented heart. Dawn wanted to comfort her too but Buffy never let anyone too deep. It always seemed to end up in hurt.

Most people were asleep now. It was way past midnight. The Potentials were scattered around on the ground asleep. Giles was sitting by the fire as well and Faith was somewhere with Robin Wood probably still marvelling their escape.

And there was this void where the two members of their fallen team should be.

Rubbing her hands up and down her arms, Dawn headed towards the bus in hope that it would be warmer in there. It was pitch black as she got on. No light came through the windows to show her where she was going. So she settled for feeling her way about, her hands holding onto seats as she passed to get to the back of the bus, where she could lie down and hopefully sleep whilst at the same time keeping warm. She wanted to sleep, more than anything. Tiredness consumed her yet she couldn't make it all the way there. And the back of the bus seemed so far…it stretched endlessly.

But when she finally got there, she sat down with a thud, grateful, but not for long. The seat didn't feel right, it was too bumpy and too high and it moved.

All these thoughts registered in Dawn's mind as she and someone else screamed. The legs she had been sitting on moved away and there was a thud on the ground as the figure fell off the seat and onto the floor. Dawn pushed herself to the opposite window, praying that there was no Bringer left or something.

"Holy crap," someone said. Dawn's eyes adjusted and she saw the figure on the floor was Andrew. He was half sitting up with his hand on the floor and the other ready on the seat to pull himself up. "You scared the…something out of me." He pulled himself up and sat back down, giving and annoyed frowned. "What are you doing here anyway? This is my part of the bus."

"What are you doing here?"

"Sleeping. Or…was. Anyway, Finders Keepers." His voice suddenly sounded rather regretful, though. Dawn thought that he was almost angry for shouting at her…as if he expected some kind of punishment, a scolding. He lowered his head and looked at the floor of the darkened bus like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.

There was silence for a moment as they both sat on opposite ends of the backseat, either thinking of something to break the silence of just plain scared too. Dawn fidgeted and then Andrew fidgeted. He looked outside of the window now, gazing at nothing because it was too dark to see. Slowly, the silence begun to get deafening and Dawn wanted so badly to say something. She felt she was in the place she had to…anything. Something worthwhile. She opened her mouth…

"Shouldn't you be back out there?" Andrew asked miserably.

Dawn frowned. "Huh?"

"Well, everyone's out there. Buffy, Mr Giles, Willow…" His voice trailed off like it was taking off into the distance and taking him with it. It sounded almost painful. It wasn't a usual Andrew whine. It was more pliant, a calm tone which sounded as though he was speaking about something he felt that was other than Star Wars or Wonder Woman.

"Then why aren't you out there?" Dawn asked pointedly.

Andrew opened his mouth and then closed it like he had to think about the question. "Remaining…oblivious?" he suggested, like he wasn't sure about what he should say. Whether it was right to say.

"What's that supposed to mean? I can see you."

"It's dark sweetie, no you can't," Andrew answered, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Well…" Dawn drawled, as if trying to come up with something to say, "I can see your outline. Either way, I can see you." Silence descended again the turn of conversation had shifted to Andrew but it seemed that particular conversation had come to an end. There was nothing more to say on it and Dawn felt uncomfortable by what Andrew was subtly implying. She felt as if she should comfort him somehow and make him feel better. 

She took the chance and turned her head slightly to look at the boy sitting a few seats away from him. He was looking out of the window again as though something out there fascinated him. The moon was partially out now from behind a cloud and Dawn could begin to see part of his face, lightened by the white light. It seemed so innocent and yet so much younger, liked someone had sucked the old age out of him.

His skin was pale and she knew it wasn't due to the white light. It had been pale ever since they got off the bus here. There was a small indent in his forehead where he had been cut. And as Dawn looked closer, she could see that his eyes were suspiciously bright. Like he had been crying. To surface, the word cute came to mind and cute then turned to mildly attractive.

_Mildly attractive? It's Andrew!_

And for the first time in her life, Dawn realized that they were no longer in a position where judgement counts. The past no longer counter and attitudes no longer did because everyone here had something in common. They'd survived. And that was enough to shed light onto anyone. It showed the bravery and the courage and defiance against evil. It showed there was more to a person than met the eye. And Dawn looked past the surface.

"Are you cold?" Dawn suddenly asked.

Andrew turned to look her and smiled shyly. "A little. The heater doesn't work on the bus, I already tried."

 Dawn nodded slowly. "So—err—do you want to…" she motioned towards the middle to seats in a gesture that signified they should sit closer.

Andrew's mouth dropped open. He looked as though that gesture had meant to be asked on a date or be given the whole collection of original Star Wars comics. For a moment he was rendered speechless and Dawn couldn't help smiling slightly in the darkness of her corner. "Um—err—yeah, okay." He shifted slowly, getting up and moving sideways to sit on the middle seat. Dawn got up and moved as sat next to him.

There shoulders touched and arms touched. Andrew looked down and saw their knees were touching as well. He swallowed, and put his hand awkwardly on his leg so that it was nowhere near her. He didn't want to give off any signs of anything. He was too scared to do anything but sit there. Dawn smiled and put her head on his shoulder. Immediately, she felt him tense up like the contact scared him. "Calm down," she said. "How do you plan to sleep like that?"

Andrew laughed nervously and forced himself to keep calm. This wasn't a red alert situation. "How did you plan to sleep like this anyway?" he joked quietly. For moment, he didn't know what to do. Dawn Summer's had her head on his shoulder and was practically leaning against him. Andrew knew he couldn't get to sleep sitting up straight and rigid. So he awkwardly moved his arm up and Dawn lifted her head, confused, until he put it behind him, resting it on the backseat of the bus, afraid to touch her.

"Better?" Dawn asked as Andrew wriggled down slightly.

"Yeah, I guess."

Silence descended again. "Now what?"

She felt Andrew shrug, lifting her head. "We could tell ghost stories? Although, I think we've been scared enough for one day. We should just sleep." Dawn nodded.

And Andrew closed his eyes tightly, as if forcing him to sleep. He was certain this was a dream. Any moment now he would wake up and realize that and all this had just been cooked up in a restless sleep. A cruel joke that his life seemed to play on him. Giving him what he wanted and then snatching it away like he was standing with a rope around his neck and then the chair was pulled from under him. That's how it usually went. That's how it'd probably go now.

"Andrew, are you scared?" Dawn asked, cutting through the silence like a knife? Andrew opened his eyes and saw that he was exactly where he had been a few seconds ago. Nothing had changed.

"Am I…" he asked distractedly as the question tried to proceed into his thought filled brain. Then it dawned on him. Dawn's voice wasn't mocking; it was just a simple question. "More scared now than before."

Dawn frowned, not expecting that to be the answer. "Huh?"

Andrew shifted slightly, like he was about to reveal something personal. "I…I was scared when I thought I didn't have to be. When I fought the Bringers and vamps. I thought I should be scared because I was going to die and then I realized, I was supposed to."

Dawn's frown only increased. She lifted her head from his shoulder. "You were supposed to die? No, you weren't Andrew. If you were supposed to…you would've. But you're still here." Andrew didn't say anything nor did he look at her face, afraid of the face that matched the heart filled voice. "Why are you more scared now?"

Andrew shrugged again, looking at his fingers in his lip. "I guess…I've got nowhere to go now. And being lost is definitely slightly scary."

"You're not lost, Andrew," Dawn said, in that tone that she used to use before to say something back. A tone which suggested that he was stupid and talking rubbish. She bit her lip as she said "I—I mean. You're with us. You won't go lost with us."

"Fine. Do you know where you're going?"

"No. But Giles will probably find somewhere for me, Buffy and everyone…"

"Aha!" Andrew interrupted before he could stop himself. 

"Aha what?"

"Nothing."

"No," Dawn said, sitting up and frowning. "No, you don't just give an 'aha' like that without then explaining what it was about. Come on, tell me."

Andrew just shifted again uncomfortably, mentally kicking himself for having said something so stupid outside. "It's nothing, really. It's just something stupid."

"Nothing's really stupid anymore," Dawn said quietly. She didn't know what it was, but she could sense that there was something more to Andrew now. Either he was showing it more or Dawn could see more clearly. But she felt sorry for him, which was probably the attitude he didn't want her to have for him. She couldn't help it, though.

Andrew sighed. "It's just…everybody has someone else. You have Buffy. No matter how upset Xander is without Anya he'll always have Buffy and Willow. Buffy will always have Giles. Faith now has Mr Wood." He looked down.

"What and you think you have no one?" Dawn demanded. "That you're alone." She was shocked by it but she was surprised she hadn't sensed it before. She suddenly felt a lot warmer, like her emotions were heating her up for something. It was something she hadn't experienced before. Her eyes melted. "You're not alone."

The blond boy sagged into his seat and then turned to look at Dawn straight faced. "There's nothing like being surrounded by so many people and still feeling so alone."

He turned back again.

Dawn paused and contemplated that. She had never felt truly alone before. For a while, a long time ago, she thought she had been. When she first discovered she was the key, not a person who had lived their whole life, just something created and forced into this world, this way of life, this environment, she felt alone. She felt like she wasn't there to be loved by her family because they weren't. Her friends weren't really hers. And then she'd felt alone. Right down until she'd cut into her wrist to see it and relieve the pain. It had felt awful and screaming felt good. People paid attention.

But Andrew could neither cut nor scream because no one did pay attention. And that's what she realized they forced him into. They discarded him. He was the guy in the background that couldn't really "do anything useful." The Other Guy. Tucker's Brother.

She knew the stories of people who felt so alone. They had done horrible things to themselves to make it all better and make the pain go away. It was an awful thing to do. Dawn remembered a story of Jonathan Levinson, Andrew's friend, who had been so alone that he was willing to kill himself just to get some recognition. Just to feel wanted by one person would have been enough.

Andrew looked at Dawn again when she didn't answer with a look on his face that he seemed to suggest that he was right but wished it wasn't. Dawn paused, wondering how her face has suddenly got so close to Andrew's. She didn't remember moving or getting closer or Andrew shifting anymore. Those few seconds had just disappeared from her memory. And yet somehow, this felt right. She didn't want to pull away and the sinking or panicked feeling inside her didn't arise. It felt good, like it should be.

And then their lips met and they were kissed. Andrew tensed again, unsure what he was supposed to do with this. This was a situation he hadn't been before. A thousand panics ran through him. What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to do it? He didn't want to swallow her tongue or make her gag or something. 

But in a strange way, it seemed to work. They had kissed without doing anything wrong. And Andrew pulled away, looking at Dawn in surprise.

"You're not alone," Dawn said. "I'm going to show that to you."

"Err…okay," Andrew said, finding his hand automatically on Dawn's slim waist. Her arms went around his neck and then, she was practically sitting on his lap. Andrew looked at her and then frowned. "Is this a trick?"

"What?" Dawn asked in surprise. "No!"

"Then am I dreaming?"

Dawn pinched Andrew's arm and he squealed in pain. "Ow!"

"Nope. I'm guessing you're awake then."

Andrew paused for a moment and then smiled lopsidedly as though he felt stupid about asking it. Before he could say anything more, he was kissing Dawn again, this time more passionately. His hands, of their own accord, had started moving behind her, resting on her hips and then moving under the t-shirt she had on to feel her smooth skin there. They were shaking but still working, riding up the material. Dawn kissed harder and broke off when they ran out of oxygen but immediately resumed the task by starting to kiss on his neck.

Andrew's eyes widened in surprise at this. He had dreamed of it but never expected to even last this long with a woman to get this far.

Dawn lifted her head so that Andrew could pull her top off and suddenly he paused, frozen, not thinking about what he was actually doing, looking into his lap again, with his hands, frozen onto the seat, gripping it tightly. Dawn lifted his head. "Andrew," she whispered. "It's okay."

"I just don't want your sister to kill me. I've already escaped one death," he joked and laughed nervously.

"Don't worry," Dawn said. "Buffy isn't here to tell us what to do. If it makes you feel any better, I'm scared as well. I…I haven't done this before before either."

Andrew's eyes widened even more. "Holy crap, you're a virgin?"

Dawn simply smiled. "Not for long," she answered as she grabbed the base of Andrew's t-shirt and pulled up. Andrew just followed the routine in his zombie like state but immediately felt the cold against him from the night. He automatically shivered until he felt Dawn's hands on his shoulder.

She was nervous. She was trying to hold in the thousand shakes that went through her per second. Dawn didn't have any qualms about doing it with Andrew, it was just the doing it part. She was throwing caution to the wind for once. Her hands automatically moved downwards.

He looked at her and suddenly realized how beautiful she was. Her long hair cascading over her bare shoulders, her pretty eyes, her pretty smile and her pretty body. Andrew asked what he had done to deserve her right now. What had he done that had been so worthwhile? But he pushed the questions out of his mind as he fumbled behind her, trying to release her clasp without looking like a fool in his head. This was working. Andrew found himself completely turned on and it didn't take long. But thousands of thoughts were whirring through his head.

_You could live without me, Andrew thought to himself, __but right now, I can't be without you. He lay Dawn down on the backseat and crawled on top._

*  *  *  *  *

He collapsed down on the backseat, breathing heavily as if he'd just done a marathon. Dawn felt exactly the same way. But it wasn't a tiring one. In fact, it felt almost satisfactory, as if they'd done something to please themselves. Andrew felt like he was in a daze for the next ten minutes, wondering what the hell he'd done. One arm was around Dawn, who was curled up around him. She was still awake, but also thing. There were no "morning after" type feelings that came early. In fact, even though they were on an old bus, it felt perfect.

Andrew slowly put a hand in Dawn's hair and weaved it through, feeling how soft it was. "Is this what it feels like?" he asked almost inaudibly.

Dawn turned her head towards him. "What does what feel like?"

"Being loved?"

The girl paused now, contemplating on what Andrew was saying. She scrunched up her nose. "I wouldn't know. It's not like I've done this type of love before. But to feel wanted and needed by someone…I guess yeah."

Andrew smiled. She had answered it so lightly, as if it meant nothing to her. She was probably used to the feeling. But Andrew felt as though everything in his life had been fulfilled and he could now go on, not worrying about what this kind of feeling felt like. "Thanks for showing it to me for a while. You didn't have to, though…"

Dawn sat up. "What makes you think it was just for a while."

The blond boy looked directly at her and blinked in confusion. Dawn couldn't help notice how cute he looked doing that. She couldn't' believe she hadn't seen him this way before. "I…I just thought, you know…you wouldn't want to carry on…not with someone like…"

"Who? You?" Dawn asked him. She leant forward and kissed Andrew softly. "As you can see, there is no one else. And I don't want anyone else either."

Andrew swallowed and fidgeted slightly with the end of the backseat that was tearing off. "Maybe we should—err—get changed," he said, reaching for his discarded clothes on the floor and on the rest of the seats.

Dawn just grabbed his wrist. "I'm being serious, Andrew. I wouldn't joke about something like this. Why do you think I would?"

"I'm not saying it's your fault, sweetie. It's…because…no one thinks that way about me. Nobody _wants _me."

Dawn shrugged. "Well, you're going have to get used to the new times," she said as Andrew sat back down. He curled into himself like he was self conscious about exposing himself. Dawn had given up that a long time ago. Andrew was hardly someone to be afraid of. "This is what it is, Andrew. It's how I feel. You've been given a second chance, just like I have. Why don't we make something of it? Like Xander and Anya had?"

Andrew paused. Xander and Anya didn't have another chance. There'd never be another chance for them. And suddenly, he felt a lot better. He wondered what he was doing; throwing the one bit of happiness he had out of the window. Andrew looked over at Dawn and nodded. "I do love you," he said.

"Good. I should hope so." Dawn scooted over to sit next to him. "How do you feel now?"

"Just peachy."


End file.
